Besides the fun of searching for a good solution, this would let me jump deeper into DesignSpark Mechanical (DSM). But soon after starting, I had to switch back to other applications:

DSM has no function to generate gears, although it imports file formats like OBJ, STL and SKP (SketchUP). That’s nice but I miss DXF and SVG. So I started SketchUp again, generated my gears with the help of the Involute Gears plugin and imported them into DSM as STL files.

Picture #3: Gear layout in DSM

The rest of the modeling tasks were quickly done and soon I had the first prototype on my desk. Things to optimise or fix:

The lever between the bluish excenter and the green idler gear has to be bent. This way the gears could be better observed.

All gears were too large on the lower layers (this is called elephant's foot) and this made the gears hardly turnable. With a beveled bottom this could have been solved. Although DSM has got built in round corner and bevel functions, it completely failed with the gears. So back to SketchUp and get it done there.

To sum up:The movements in the HENRY T. BROWNs book are fascinating. And in combination with modelling and searching for functional solutions there is a lot to learn and explore. What about DSM? I miss some extra functions obtained perhaps through a plugin system... but I’m quite happy with DSM and switching back to SketchUp is no longer an option.